Free Midnight (Night Fever Serial Book 2.5) by Jessica Hawkins

Chapter One
    Ten years earlier
     
    Beau already knew the contract across the conference table backward and forward, but he couldn’t take his eyes off it. From upside-down, the empty line awaiting his signature glimmered—as if a spotlight from the heavens shone directly on it. In actuality, it was fluorescent glare from the office building’s overhead lights.
    His palm sweat around the pen in his hand. This was it—his moment. After weeks of negotiation, he and the other men at the table had come to an agreement that would turn Beau from broke, wannabe entrepreneur to wealthy, established businessman.
    A lawyer read the contract aloud. George Wright, founder of VenTech and soon-to-be owner of Beau’s revolutionary payment services website, sat in a chair opposite Beau. He glanced at Beau and then at his watch. “Is there much more?”
    “We’re on the last page,” someone said.
    Every seat was filled. Each side of the table had at least one lawyer and banker. Against common practice, Beau hadn’t brought a negotiator to any of their meetings. Getting people to concede to him was a skill he planned to use going forward, so instead, he’d spent hours in the library teaching himself the art of negotiation and deciphering the contract’s terms himself. Once, he’d even asked a pretty brunette to move down a spot so he could have more space.
    To his left sat the best lawyer he could afford. Which was to say, a midlevel associate named Harold Grubman whose nickname was Harry Grubs—information he’d volunteered to Beau when they’d met. But Beau had little choice, considering he was thousands of dollars in debt, and his credit cards were nearly maxed. Harold had taken a risk accepting Beau as a client, knowing if the deal fell through, Beau wouldn’t have anything to pay him with. The inverse was also true, though, and if today went as they both hoped, Beau had promised Grubman a cut that’d earn him more than his yearly salary. So, Grubs it was.
    Nobody was talking anymore. They were all looking at Beau, most notably the George Wright, whose eyebrows were raised.
    Beau loosened his tie a little, the lights beating down on him. He turned to Grubman, who nodded and said, “Sign.”
    The lawyer flipped the packet around and slid it right in front of them. Beau blinked once and signed away the last decade of his life.
    It’d taken Beau seven tries to get to this exact spot. In ten years, four of his ideas had been perfectly on target. So much so, that others had beaten him to the finish line in his final stages of securing investors. One company he’d started had been a total bust—and a lesson that desperation wasn’t the right motivator for him. Lastly, he’d been on the verge of selling a B2B website, only to have it fall through two days before it was finalized. He’d spent too much on that lawyer.
    The ink of his signature hadn’t even dried before the contract was picked up, placed into a folder and whisked out the door by one of the lawyers. The transaction was complete—lucky number seven had sold. For most, the concept was boring—the payment services site he’d developed would transform the way online businesses accepted money over the web. But for Beau, it was fascinating. Internet companies were growing at an exponential rate, and in the right hands, every online shopping cart would have a checkout option that included Beau’s company.
    His former company. Beau had considered growing it himself, but fascinating as it was, he was brimming with ideas. He was ready to move on, and VenTech was offering him over three times what the website was worth at this point. He’d signed it over to give it a better life—and so he could start the next thing. With the fortune he had now, there’d be no stopping him.
    327 million dollars. Beau thought he might pass out. He set the pen down, wiping his hand on his pant leg.
    Wright stood, glancing at the clock above Beau’s head. “It’s six o’clock